Anyway. The media seems to believe a Palestinian rocket attack on Tel Aviv just came out of nowhere, ignoring the fact there was a pattern of provocation in the weeks leading up to said attack, with Israeli raids wounding or killing civilians. Hamas, being the dumbfucks they are, took the bait and responded in such a way it made them, and not the IDF look like the aggressors.

Israel has been spoiling for a fight for a while now. One wonders if this is some kind of substitute for military action in Lebanon, Syria or even Iran (which, due to Obama's reelection, are not likely to happen), but at the moment that remains pure speculation.

I have some very pro-Israel friends (no doubt because they're some pretty hardcore Jews), and I keep having to check myself when they start fingerpointing at the Palestinians and hollering, "unprovoked!"

"Get offa me, you freaks! This is not North Korea. No. This is America, and I expect to be PAID for that sort of nonsense. In advance. No credit...Cash on the barrelhead or GTFO. I swear to God, there's nothing more annoying than commie perverts who don't understand the intrinsic value of the free market system."

Yeah. The Palestinians ain't exactly saints either - God knows Arafat let enough terrorists slip the lines and sneak into Israel in the 1990s - but that's rather the point. No-one's a saint in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and it's utterly ridiculous for any side to pretend otherwise.

"Get offa me, you freaks! This is not North Korea. No. This is America, and I expect to be PAID for that sort of nonsense. In advance. No credit...Cash on the barrelhead or GTFO. I swear to God, there's nothing more annoying than commie perverts who don't understand the intrinsic value of the free market system."

Yeah, meh fest. News keeps showing israeli strikes on "legitimate military targets" which, as far as I can ascertain is a euphemism for "buildings with people in". Basically they seem to be nuking the piss out of the last remaining areas where palestinians are still allowed to live but what do I know?

Is there a happy-phrase for ethnic cleansing or genocide when it's our allies doing it? Friendly holocaust, maybe?

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Ass-Kicking & Foot-Stomping Ancient Master of SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCKAwful and Bent Behemothic Results of Last Night's Painful Squat.High Altitude Haggis-Filled Sex Bucket From Beyond Time and Space.Internet Monkey Person of Filthy and Immoral Pygmy-Porn Wart ContagionOctomom Auxillary Heat Exchanger Repairmanwalking the fine line line between genius and batshit fucking crazy"And National Geographic got interested because National Geographic has the theory that the last century, discovery was basically finding things, and in this century, discovery is basically making things."-- Stewart Brand

Speaking at a joint press conference with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Obama called for an end to the firing of missiles into Israel by militants inside Gaza, saying “there is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”

From where I'm sitting, it seems like the pattern so far is a repeat of 2008-9 (Operation Cast Lead, in which we killed some 700-1000 civilians.) It works like this: Air Force gets sent in for surgical strikes against Hamas targets. In the first day or two, there are hardly any civilian casualties. Then the more isolated targets have all been reduced to dust and the Air Force begins targeting Hamas targets in densely-populated areas, increasing civilian casualties. Then they get sloppy and murder a whole innocent family because someone didn't double-check they were hitting the right house.

The only difference as far as I can tell, apart from the fact the IDF has not started the imminent ground invasion so far, is that targeting has become a bit more accurate. And I'm not entirely certain of that.On the other hand, there's the major difference in Gazan missile range. This might not seem like a big deal to all y'all but here in Israel we're already used to ignoring the fuck out of the South from back in the day when all they suffered from was massive unemployment and pollution. The media and the public are treating the rockets on Tel Aviv like they're the first ones that even count. Like shit only just got real.

But on the Israeli public opinion front, there's a massive difference, in that this time, almost *everyone* seems to be apprehensive about the whole thing and outspokenly against a ground invasion. But it seems that Netanyahu is pulling the usual "peace talks" schtick of placing such high requirements that Hamas has no choice but to refuse the ceasefire.

I'm not optimistic about the outcome. Despite the public outcry, this is going to end like it started, as a tragicomic replay of Cast Lead, meaning obscene Pal civilian casualties to a handful of Israeli casualties, meaning continued hostilities on the Gazan border after the end of the massacre, and meaning increased Israeli isolation on the international front. My light at the end of the tunnel is that the elections might pull us a tad to the left this time, rather than to the far right like after Cast Lead.

(I sound detached because I'm trying not to scream. My sister lives in Tel Aviv and I'm going there on Wednesday, like I do every week. A bunch of my childhood friends are already, or are about to be, on Reserve military duty. And I'm very fond of this country and don't want it to become more hellish than it already is. At least I'm not worried about rockets on Jerusalem, where I am; that's not going to become a serious threat.)

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Speaking at a joint press conference with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Obama called for an end to the firing of missiles into Israel by militants inside Gaza, saying “there is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”

Oh god.

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